Wednesday, November 14, 2007

One thing Boston-haters can take solace in is that in spite of their current dominance, they technically are no closer towards achieving the ultimate sports accomplishment: the Metro-iple Crown.

What is the Metro-iple Crown? It's more than an awkward attempt at combining two words - it's winning the Superbowl, NBA Championship, and World Series in the same calendar year. And while the Patriots and Celtics seem very capable of following the Red Sox to championship glory, you can thank your lucky stars (literally) that the Sox' victory was part of the 2007 calendar year, and a Patriots and/or Celtics championship would be in 2008. So even if Brady and KG do their part, the Sox would have to repeat to consummate the Metro-iple Crown - something no metropolitan area has ever accomplished.

This led me to do a little research about what city has come the closest. Below is my breakdown of the 6 most impressive almosts since the inception of the Superbowl in 1967:

#6 - Los Angeles, 1988 (NBA Champion, MLB Champion). Four months before Kirk Gibson's HR, James Worthy put up 36 Points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to vanquish the Bad Boys. While capturing two of the three crowns is impressive, the fact that Los Angeles fielded two teams in all three sports made the feat somewhat less impressive.

#5 - Bay Area, 1989 (NFL Champion, MLB Champion, MLB Runner-up). The year after SoCal's Metro-iple Crown attempt, NoCal gave it their best shot. At the time I hated the 49ers, A's, and the Giants, yet all three made it to their respective championship games. The 49ers won Superbowl XXIII in the John Candy game, and the A's swept the Giants in the Earthquake Series.

#4 - New York, 1969 (NFL Champion, MLB Champion, belated NBA Champion). Although New York also has two pro franchises in each of the major sports, what made their attempt particularly impressive is that they indeed won all three championships - they just needed a few extra months. Joe Namath made good on his Superbowl guarantee in January of 1969, the Mets beat the O's that October, and the Knicks won the NBA Championship in May the following year.

#3 - Baltimore, 1971 (NFL Champion, NBA Runner-up, MLB Runner-Up). I don't really know anything about Baltimore's sports teams in 1971 (I guess they had an NBA team?), but I saw they did pretty good. Bonus points for being a smaller city.

#2 - Boston, 1986 (NBA Champion, NFL Runner-up, MLB Runner-up). The world might remember 1986 for Bill Buckner, but overall Boston's pro teams had an incredible 1986. Not only did the Red Sox make it to the World Series, but the Patriots made it to the Superbowl and the Celtics made it to the NBA Championship (the Sox and Patriots lost to the Mets and Bears, respectively, while the Celtics swept the Rockets).

#1 - Pittsburgh, 1979 (NFL Champion, MLB Champion). The Steel Curtain beat Dallas 35-31 in the Superbowl XIII, and nine months later the Pirates edged the Orioles in 7 games. Pittsburgh gets bonus points for being only the 24th largest US city at the time. And given that they don't have an NBA team, their pro teams were basically a perfect 2-for-2 (in case you haven't noticed, NHL doesn't count).